Overview

CareFusion Automates IV Room for Hospital Pharmacies

New Technologies Launched for Enterprise-Wide Medication Management

Dec 9, 2013

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 9, 2013 – CareFusion (NYSE:CFN), a leading global medical technology company, today announced a new suite of technologies that will revolutionize automation within a hospital pharmacy IV room and enhance enterprise-wide medication management solution for all dosage forms of pharmaceuticals.

Pyxis® technologies from CareFusion are comprised of hardware and software components that help hospitals maximize safety and efficiency when receiving, storing, compounding, delivering, administering and returning IV medications across a hospital. The solution is built on the Pyxis Pharmogistics® software offering and is augmented with new technologies made possible through the Pyxis® ES platform.

“As hospitals and health systems are shifting the care model from fee-for-service to managing population health, enterprise platforms are required to enable the standardization of processes, technologies and systems,” said Rusty Frantz, senior vice president and general manager of Dispensing for CareFusion. “Our new Pyxis technologies help to standardize, automate and optimize the medication process and realize our vision of enterprise-wide medication management for all dosage forms.”

Inventory Management
In a typical hospital, 10 percent to 20 percent of the operating budget is tied to its pharmacy, with IV medications generating the greatest expense. Pharmaceutical inventory management is a critical component to controlling costs, and Pyxis Pharmogistics software from CareFusion can help manage the right amount of inventory for a hospital or health system. The software enables near real-time visibility across a health system to keep costs down and free-up pharmacy staff to redeploy to clinical activity. All medications — oral solids, IVs and injectibles — can be scanned upon hospital receipt with Pyxis Pharmogistics software helping to organize storage. This creates an enterprise-wide inventory management model to help ensure optimized inventory levels and visibility across the hospital or health system.

Pick, Prep and Check
While the greatest percentage of a hospital pharmacy budget is the cost of IV medication, it is estimated that fewer than 10 percent of hospitals use automation within their IV room where infused medication is compounded. The new Pyxis IV system* helps standardize the workflow in the central pharmacy IV room to securely manage a closed-loop pick, prep and check process, while driving efficiency in pharmacy activities. This standardization also helps improve the accuracy and error rate reduction of the IV compounding process, as well as free up pharmacy staff to redeploy to clinical activities. The new Pyxis IV system consists of monitors in the IV room that walk clinicians through each compounding step. The system organizes all similar orders and recommends the proper vial size to use when compounding to help minimize waste. The system also has video cameras to record compounding components to help facilitate remote checking by a pharmacist, which saves time by eliminating the need for clean room entrance and exit processes. CareFusion is also introducing the CUBIE® ES pocket and CUBIE ES mobile dock. CUBIE ES pockets are filled and loaded onto the CUBIE ES mobile dock, which can be transported to where the pharmacist is located to electronically verify and document the medication check process. The new, full pocket is then exchanged for an empty one within the appropriate Pyxis MedStation® ES system. This system can send automated orders to the pharmacy for new CUBIE pockets when medications levels fall below a threshold that is predetermined by pharmacy and nursing. This further automates the refill process for the Pyxis MedStation ES system and streamlines refills on the nursing floor.

Track, Deliver, Administer, Return
After the IV has been compounded and checked by a pharmacist, it is ready to deliver to the nursing floor. Through the new Pyxis ES Link software, both nursing and pharmacy have near real-time visibility to all medications. The application is hardware agnostic and can be run through a web browser on any Internet-enabled computer. This will help reduce inquiries from nursing to pharmacy on medication orders and can help reduce unnecessary refill orders that are often sent while the original medication order is still being processed and delivered. In addition to increased visibility, nursing is able to remotely queue and waste medications, further optimizing workflow and reducing time at the Pyxis MedStation system. The Pyxis IV system is also capable of tracking whether the drug was administered to the patient or is in need of being returned to the hospital pharmacy. When returned to the pharmacy, Pyxis Pharmogistics software can scan the medication and determine if the same mixture is ordered prior to its expiration for possible re-labeling and re-use. The potential re-use of un-administered IV medication can help hospital recover lost costs from medications that would otherwise be discarded.